Personal computing and electronic devices, such as laptop computers, media players, cellular telephones and the like are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, powerful and consumer friendly. The ability to fabricate various components of these devices in smaller sizes, while still maintaining or increasing the power, operating speed and aesthetic appeal of such devices, has contributed greatly to this trend. Unfortunately, the trend of smaller, lighter and more powerful portable computing devices presents continuing design challenges in the actual formation of some components for these devices. One design challenge associated with such electronic devices and components therefor is the formation of the outer enclosure or housing used to house the various internal device components therein.
In particular, many electronic devices have housings that are made from several different parts, as well as complex mechanical structures, features, and/or other internal parts that must also connect or attach to the housing. Even in the more eloquently designed electronic devices, outer housings are still typically formed from multiple parts, which tends to result in at least seams or other discontinuities, if not exposed screws, tabs or other component fasteners. For example, outer housings made from just two main parts typically include an upper casing and a lower casing that are placed on top of one another and fastened together using screws or other fastening means. Such techniques typically complicate the housing design and create aesthetic difficulties because of undesirable cracks, seams, gaps or breaks at the mating surfaces, as well as exposed fasteners located along the surfaces of the housing. Even where fasteners are hidden or removed altogether from the outer surfaces of an electronic device, a mating line or seam surrounding the entire enclosure is still often produced when using an upper and lower casing.
Although such seams or gaps generally tend to detract from the overall aesthetic appeal of the device, it is typically necessary to form device housings from multiple parts for the simple reason that access to the internal regions of an electronic device or component is needed at least during the manufacture of the device or component. In instances where access to the internal regions of the device or component is really not needed once the device is manufactured, however, the existence of a mating line, gap, seam, or any other artifacts of manufacture are usually an unnecessary and unseemly byproduct of the manufacturing process.
While many designs and techniques used to provide outer housings for electronic devices and components have generally worked well in the past, there is always a desire to provide alternative housing designs and techniques for new and aesthetically pleasing devices.